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Product Development in a Startup
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Ronan Amicel
November 26, 2014
Business
2
270
Product Development in a Startup
Talk given at the Paris Founder Institute on November 26th, 2014.
Ronan Amicel
November 26, 2014
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Transcript
Paris Founder Institute — 26 Novembre 2014 Ronan Amicel @amicel
Product Development in a Startup
Ronan Amicel 10+ years with startups Flying Sensei @ Pocket
Sensei Hacker in Residence @ The Family
Easy, no?
Recipe for Product Success 1. Come up with a killer
idea 2. Write detailed specs and mockups 3. Hire team or outsource to development shop 4. Get an awesome product!
Recipe for Product Success 1. Come up with a killer
idea 2. Write detailed specs and mockups 3. Hire team or outsource to development shop 4. Get an awesome product! NOT
Your Challenges 1. Build the right product 2. Build your
product right
Build the Right Product
Your Biggest Risk Build something that nobody wants
Love the Problem, not the Solution • Focus on really
understanding: — The Problem — The Customer • Tools: — Customer Development — Lean Startup ♥︎
The Solution is a Path MVP 2 MVP 3 MVP
1
Iterate • Release early – start learning ASAP! • Release
often – maximize the number of cycles through the loop Build Measure Learn
Minimum Viable Product • Minimal is NOT crappy • Focus
on solving one aspect of the problem for a single group of people • Pick a minimal core set of features • Remove features • Remove more features
Source : http://blog.fastmonkeys.com/
Build your Product Right
Culture Team Product
Ideal Situation • Collaboration between tech & business • Product
leadership • Experienced developers
Tech-Business Collaboration • Split work in small chunks — Minimum
Marketable Feature — User Stories • Prioritize backlog based on business value — use Impact Mapping — define goals and metrics
Product Leadership • Have someone with strong product sense on
the team • Translate understanding of customer problems into a great user experience • Making product decisions = saying no
Experienced Developers
Experienced Developers Bad Developer Sure, I can do it! (except
not)
Experienced Developers Bad Developer Sure, I can do it! (except
not) Good Developer Sure, I can do it!
Experienced Developers Bad Developer Sure, I can do it! (except
not) Good Developer Sure, I can do it! Experienced Developer Hmm, I can reuse this library
Experienced Developers Bad Developer Sure, I can do it! (except
not) Good Developer Sure, I can do it! Experienced Developer Hmm, I can reuse this library Very Experienced Developer Actually, we don’t need this
Hiring Good, Available, and Cheap?
But hiring is tough! • You don’t have much money
• You don’t have much time • You don’t have much experience • You don’t know many people
So, here’s Plan B • Do whatever you can to
build a crappy throwaway MVP: — learn to code — go to hackathons — hire someone • Get the ball rolling!
Typical Problems • The team doesn’t ship • Quality issues
• New features take longer and longer
The Team Doesn’t Ship • Remove non-working and half-finished features,
find a working core • Aggressively trim the backlog • Start releasing ASAP at least internally (shipping != launching)
Quality issues • Managing Quality — Feature vs. experiment —
Understand technical debt — Unit tests and code review can help
Technology
Python, Ruby, Node.js ? Use whatever the team knows best
and is more productive with.
Tools • Use source control (e.g. git) • Automate deployment
• Automate tests
Wait ! You probably don’t need to build anything yet!
Low Fidelity MVPs • Interviews (like, talking to people!) •
Paper prototypes • Mockups (Balsamiq, PowerPoint, KeyNote...) • Landing pages, surveys, videos...
Do Things that Don’t Scale • “Concierge” MVP — Solve
the problem by doing things manually • “Wizard of Oz” MVP — Do things manually behind the curtain (app, website...)
Key Takeaways • Love the problem, not the solution •
Start small and iterate • Balance speed and quality • Don’t build it yet
Questions?